For a while, it looked like the start of a great reconciliation. Armenia and Turkey have lived beneath the vast shadow of the mass murder of Armenians in eastern Turkey during World War I, and to this day they maintain no diplomatic ties. But in October, the Armenian and Turkish foreign ministers met in Switzerland and signed two protocols to set up relations, open their common border -- closed since 1993 -- and begin addressing the painful disputes that divide them. Each nation's governments must still ratify the agreements.

Just as The Times expressed in its Oct. 13 editorial, "Turkey and Armenia: reconciling history," I believe that it's in both countries' interest to restore diplomatic ties and open their shared border. However, I cannot help but question the logic of The Times' appeal to Armenians and Turks to "get beyond" the issue of the Armenian genocide -- especially when the editorial board shares the concern of Armenians that the establishment of a commission to study the genocide is "simply a means for Turkey to continue denying history."

More than a million Armenians were massacred in the final years of the Ottoman Empire, from 1915 to 1918. This bloody chapter of World War I should be recognized as genocide and remembered, not only to honor the victims but for its lessons to future generations. It should not, however, prevent Turkey and Armenia from approving the historic accords signed Saturday in Zurich to restore diplomatic ties and open their shared border. Nor should Armenia's fraught relationship with neighboring Azerbaijan -- Turkey's ally -- derail a rapprochement.

Turkey and Armenia signed a landmark agreement Saturday to establish diplomatic relations and open their sealed border after a century of enmity, as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton helped the two sides clear a last-minute hurdle. The contentious issue of whether the killing of as many as 1.5 million Armenians during the final days of the Ottoman Empire amounted to genocide is only hinted at in the agreement. Better ties between Turkey, a regional heavyweight, and landlocked Armenia have been a priority for President Obama, and Clinton had flown to Switzerland to witness the signing, not help close the deal.

Upset over an agreement that would establish diplomatic ties between Armenia and Turkey and reopen their common borders, members of the Los Angeles Armenian community plan to rally in Beverly Hills today. Organizers of the demonstration say they will call on Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan to refrain from signing protocols with Turkey that they believe would threaten Armenia's interests and security. Sargsyan is scheduled to visit Los Angeles today. A deal that would essentially normalize relations between the long-estranged nations is expected to be signed this month.

A flaming commercial airliner crashed in northwestern Iran on Wednesday, killing all 168 people on board in the deadliest civil aviation disaster in the Islamic Republic in two decades. Caspian Airlines Flight 7908, headed from Tehran to Yerevan, the Armenian capital, crashed before noon in the Takestan region of Iran's Qazvin province, state media reported.

The president of Turkey said Saturday that President Obama failed to honor Turks slain by Armenians in a message remembering the dead in massacres nearly a century ago. Obama refrained Friday from branding the World War I-era massacre of an estimated 1.2 million Armenians in Turkey a "genocide," and instead referred to the killings that began in 1915 as "one of the great atrocities of the 20th century."

Turkey and Armenia have agreed on a road map for normalizing relations and reaching reconciliation, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said Wednesday, but it wasn't immediately clear how they would tackle their bitter dispute over Ottoman-era killings of ethnic Armenians. Turkish officials would not discuss that issue, and the ministry statement said only that the two countries had worked out a framework for reaching a solution that would satisfy both sides.

President Obama, steering a delicate course on an explosive issue, said Monday his views on the mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in the early 20th century have not changed since he declared it a "genocide" last year, but he avoided using that term in front of his Turkish hosts. Instead, Obama emphasized the need to improve relations between Turkey and Armenia, and pointed to hopes for a breakthrough to ease long-standing tensions.